JP3791204B2 - Endless belt conveyor - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an endless belt conveyance device used for a paper conveyance system, a transfer belt, a photosensitive belt, and the like of an image forming apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an endless belt conveyance device that prevents the endless belt from meandering.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As a form of the image forming apparatus, there is one in which an endless belt conveyance device is used for a paper conveyance system, a transfer belt, a photosensitive belt, and the like. This endless belt conveyance device is a device for carrying and conveying a transfer material (printing paper), a toner image or an electrostatic latent image on the outer peripheral surface of the endless belt. For example, it is used in a paper transport system of a tandem image forming apparatus as shown in FIG.
[0003]
A conventional endless belt conveyance device 100 shown in FIG. 6 will be described. The endless belt conveyance device 100 rotates an endless belt 110, a driven roller 120 and a driving roller 130 for stretching the endless belt 110, a guide member 140 for preventing the endless belt 110 from meandering, and the driving roller 130. And a drive motor 160 for driving. In the above configuration, when the rotation of the drive motor 160 is transmitted to the drive roller 130 by the drive transmission system, the endless belt 110 travels along with the rotation and the driven roller 120 is also rotated.
[0004]
Next, the guide member 140 will be described with reference to FIG. The guide member 140 is attached to the inner surface of at least one side of the endless belt 110 over the entire circumference. When the belt 110 is traveling normally without meandering, the side surface (hereinafter referred to as “guide member regulating surface”) 141 of the guide member 140 in the width direction is the side surface 121 of the driven roller 120 and the drive roller 130. , 131 are spaced apart from each other. However, when the belt 110 meanders, the guide member regulating surface 141 contacts the roller side surfaces 121 and 131 as shown in FIG. Thereby, the further meandering of the belt 110 is prevented.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the above-described conventional endless belt conveyance device has the following problems. That is, in the guide member 140 as shown in FIG. 7, a force is exerted so that the thick portion outside the regulating surface 141 of the guide member 140 rides on the surfaces of the rollers 120 and 130. For this reason, the stress which tries to extend the endless belt of the part inside the guide member control surface 141 acts. The endless belt 110 stretched by this stress becomes longer in circumference, so that the adhered guide member regulating surface 141 cannot be brought into contact with the side surfaces 121 and 131 of the rollers 120 and 130. For this reason, if the tendency of the endless belt 110 to meander is strong, the guide member 140 easily gets on the rollers 120 and 130 as shown in FIG. In this state, since the regulation by the guide member 140 no longer works, the meandering further proceeds.
[0006]
The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the conventional endless belt conveyance device. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide an endless belt conveyance device capable of reliably preventing meandering by suppressing the elongation of the endless belt near the guide member.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an endless belt conveying apparatus having an endless belt, a tension roller for stretching the endless belt, and a guide member adhered to at least one inner surface of the endless belt. The guide member has a one-layer structure made of one material, and is formed inward in the width direction at a position outside the inner end in the width direction on the inner side in the thickness direction of the guide member. And a second regulating surface formed to project from the side surface of the tension roller, and the meandering of the endless belt is prevented by contacting the first regulating surface and the second regulating surface. Is.
[0008]
In this endless belt conveyance device, since the first restriction surface of the guide member and the second restriction surface of the stretching roller are in contact with each other, the guide member is restricted from being displaced in the width direction with respect to the stretching roller. This prevents the endless belt from meandering. At this time, if the tendency of the endless belt to meander is strong, a force is exerted so that the thick portion outside the first restriction surface of the guide member rides on the protruding portion of the second restriction surface. For this reason, the stress which tries to extend the endless belt of the part inside a 1st control surface acts. However, in this endless belt conveyance device, the guide member extends inward in the width direction from the first regulating surface, and the endless belt is reinforced by the thin portion. For this reason, the endless belt cannot be extended, and the meandering is reliably prevented.
[0009]
Such a guide member and the second restriction surface are preferably provided on both sides of the endless belt. However, if the tendency of the endless belt to meander is unidirectional, only one side may be used.
[0010]
In this endless belt conveyance device, the protruding length of the second regulating surface of the stretching roller is made longer than the width of the portion inside the width direction from the first regulating surface of the guide member, and the radius of the stretching roller is set. It is preferable that the difference between the radius of the first regulating surface and the radius of the second regulating surface is larger than the thickness of the inner portion of the guide member in the width direction from the first regulating surface. In this case, the contact between the guide member and the stretching roller occurs only between the first restriction surface and the second restriction surface. For this reason, there is no extra friction loss or stress is applied to the inner end of the guide member, causing the endless belt to stretch.
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments embodying the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. This embodiment is an endless belt conveyance device used for a paper conveyance belt, a transfer belt, a photosensitive belt, or the like in an image forming apparatus such as a copy, a fax, or a printer.
[0012]
An endless belt conveyance device 1 according to the present embodiment whose outline is shown in FIG. 1 has an endless belt 10, and a driven roller 20 and a driving roller 30 for stretching the endless belt 10. . A drive motor 60 for rotating the drive roller 30 is provided. Thus, when the drive roller 30 is rotated by driving the drive motor 60, the endless belt 10 is caused to travel along with the rotation, and the driven roller 20 is also rotated. Further, guide members 40 for preventing meandering are provided on both sides of the endless belt 10.
[0013]
The guide member 40, the driven roller 20, and the drive roller 30 that constitute the endless belt conveyance device 1 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 3, the guide member 40 has a step formed substantially at the center on the inner surface side, and is divided into an outer portion 43 and an inner portion 42. The outer portion 43 is thicker than the inner portion 42. For this reason, the location of the center level | step difference has comprised the 1st control surface 41 of the width direction inward. As the material of the guide member 40, a material harder than the endless belt 10, such as urethane rubber, is suitable. The hardness is preferably about 80 ° ± 10 in terms of Asker C hardness.
[0014]
As shown in FIG. 2, the driven roller 20 has a protruding portion 21 on its side surface. The protruding surface of the protruding portion 21 is a surface for contacting the first restricting surface 41 of the guide member 40 described above, and is referred to as a second restricting surface 22. The same shape is formed on the side surface of the drive roller 30.
[0015]
Next, the relationship between the guide member 40 and the protruding portion 21 of the driven roller 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The protrusion length d of the protrusion 21 of the driven roller 20 is set to be longer than the width f of the inner portion 42 of the guide member 40. Further, the difference e between the entire radius of the driven roller 20 and the radius of the protruding portion 21 is set larger than the thickness g of the inner portion 42 of the guide member 40. The setting of the protrusion length d and the difference e is the same for the drive roller 30.
[0016]
In the endless belt conveyance device 1 configured as described above, when the endless belt 10 meanders, the first restriction surface 41 of the guide member 40 and the second restriction surface 22 of the driven roller 20 come into contact with each other. This contact restricts the guide member 40 from being further displaced in the width direction with respect to the driven roller 20. Similarly, the variation of the drive roller 30 is also restricted. This prevents further meandering of the endless belt 10.
[0017]
At this time, the force that the thick portion 43 outside the first regulating surface 41 of the guide member 40 tries to ride on the protruding portion 21 of the second regulating surface 22 is acting. For this reason, the stress which tries to extend the endless belt 10 of the part 42 inside the 1st control surface 41 is working. However, in the endless belt conveyance device 1, the inner portion 42 of the guide member 40 extends further to the inner side than the first regulating surface 41, and the endless belt 10 is reinforced by the inner portion 42. For this reason, even if the endless belt 10 cannot be extended and the endless belt 10 tends to meander, the meandering is reliably prevented.
[0018]
Further, the protruding length d of the protruding portion 21 of the driven roller 20 is set to be longer than the width f of the inner portion 42 of the guide member 40, and the difference e between the radius of the driven roller 20 and the radius of the protruding portion 21 is the guide member. Since the thickness is set to be larger than 40, the guide member 40 and the driven roller 20 are in contact only between the first restriction surface 41 and the second restriction surface 22, and are not in contact with other portions. This also applies to the relationship between the guide member 40 and the drive roller 30.
[0019]
As described above, the contact portion between the guide member 40 and the driven roller 20 and the drive roller 30 is limited to the portion between the first restricting surface 41 and the second restricting surface 22, which may cause extra friction loss. Absent. Further, no stress is applied to extend the endless belt 10 further inside the inner portion 42 of the guide member 40.
[0020]
As described above in detail, in the endless belt conveyance device 1 according to the present embodiment, the guide member 40 made of a material harder than the endless belt 10 is provided on the inner surface of the side portion of the endless belt 10. A first regulating surface 41 is provided on the inner surface of the guide member 40, and a second regulating surface 22 is provided on the driven roller 20 and the driving roller 30, so that the guide member 40, the driven roller 20 and the driving roller 30 are the first. Contact is made only between the restriction surface 41 and the second restriction surface 42. Thereby, the part to which the stress of the endless belt 10 is applied is reinforced by the inner part 42 of the guide member 40 to prevent the elongation. Thus, meandering of the endless belt 10 is reliably prevented and friction loss is reduced.
[0021]
The endless belt conveyance device 1 described above can be used, for example, in the paper conveyance system 201 of the tandem type image forming apparatus 200 shown in FIG. The tandem image forming apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 5 is supplied with a toner image of each color formed by the four image forming units 3C, 3M, 3Y, and 3K from the paper supply system 202 and is conveyed by the paper conveyance system 201. A color image is formed on top of each other. By using the endless belt 10, the driven roller 20, and the driving roller 30 having the above-described configuration for the sheet conveying system 201, the endless belt 10 can be prevented from meandering.
[0022]
Next, a second embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the second embodiment uses a guide member 50 having a two-layer structure instead of the guide member 40 shown in FIG. 3, and there is no difference in other parts. That is, the guide member 50 in FIG. 4 is obtained by bonding the outer layer 54 and the inner layer 55. The width of the outer layer 54 is the same as the entire width of the guide member 50. On the other hand, the width of the inner layer 54 is smaller than this, and the end surface on the inner side in the width direction of the inner layer 54 forms the first regulating surface 51. In the guide member 50, the portion corresponding to the inner portion 42 is configured by only the outer layer 54, and the portion corresponding to the outer portion 43 is configured by two layers of the outer layer 54 and the inner layer 55. The positional relationship between the driven roller 20 and the protruding portion 21 of the driving roller 30 is the same as in the above case.
[0023]
In this case, the inner layer 54 that directly receives the pressure from the second regulating surface 22 of the driven roller 20 and the driving roller 30 needs to be made of a hard material, like the guide member 40 of the first embodiment. However, the outer layer 55 may be made of a more general material such as polyester. According to this configuration, the formation process of the guide member can be made easier and less expensive, and the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.
[0024]
Note that this embodiment is merely an example, and does not limit the present invention. Therefore, the present invention can naturally be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the present invention can be applied not only to the paper conveyance system of the tandem type image forming apparatus but also to other parts and other apparatuses.
[0025]
【The invention's effect】
As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, there is provided an endless belt conveyance device having a configuration that can prevent the meandering by suppressing the elongation of the endless belt near the guide member.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an endless belt conveyance device according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a guide member and a tension roller.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a guide member.
FIG. 4 is a view showing a guide member according to another embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a tandem image forming apparatus.
FIG. 6 is an overall configuration diagram of a conventional endless belt conveyance device.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a guide member and a tension roller in a conventional endless belt conveyance device.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a guide member and a stretching roller are in contact with each other.
FIG. 9 is a view showing a state where a guide member rides on a tension roller.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Endless belt conveying apparatus 10 Endless belt 20 Drive roller 21 Protruding part 22 2nd control surface 30 Driven roller 40 Guide member 41 1st control surface 50 Guide member

Claims (2)

In an endless belt conveyance device having an endless belt, a stretching roller for stretching the endless belt, and a guide member attached to an inner surface of at least one side of the endless belt,
The guide member has a one-layer structure made of one material,
A first regulating surface formed inward in the width direction at a position outside the inner edge in the width direction on the inner side in the thickness direction of the guide member;
A second restricting surface formed to project from the side surface of the tension roller,
An endless belt conveyance device that prevents meandering of the endless belt by contacting the first restriction surface and the second restriction surface. In the endless belt conveyance device according to claim 1,
The protruding length of the second restricting surface of the stretching roller is longer than the width of the inner portion in the width direction from the first restricting surface of the guide member,
An endless belt conveyance device, wherein a difference between a radius of the tension roller and a radius of the second restriction surface is larger than a thickness of a portion of the guide member on the inner side in the width direction from the first restriction surface.

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